Consult the Service Levels documentation to determine the differences in available indexes and displays between the two levels

optional for CQL queries only

default, full default is default

frbrGrouping

Whether or not to use FRBR grouping which groups together similar editions and present only the top held record as the representative record for that group. This is sometimes referred to as a "FRBRized" result set. To see separate records for editions, set this parameter to "off".

default sort direction is "ascending"; to switch to descending add ",,0" to the sortKey.

Separate combined sortKeys with a space; multiple values only works if frbrGrouping=off

frbrGrouping

whether or not to use FRBR grouping which groups together similar editions and present only the top held record as the representative record for that group. This is sometimes referred to as a "FRBRized" result set. To see separate records for editions, set this parameter to "off".

optional

on, off

default is on

servicelevel

Consult the Service Levels documentation to determine the differences in available indexes and displays between the two levels

optional

default, full default is default

wskey

Web Services Key

required

Read Bibliographic Record Parameters

Parameter

Description

Required?

Possible Values

servicelevel

Consult the Service Levels documentation to determine the differences in available indexes and displays between the two levels

optional

default, full default is default

recordSchema

determines the result format

optional

info%3Asrw%2Fschema%2F1%2Fmarcxml info%3Asrw%2Fschema%2F1%2Fdc

wskey

Web Services Key

required

Citation Format Parameters

Parameter

Description

Required?

Possible Values

cformat

the citation format you want to return

optional

apa, chicago, harvard, mla, turabian, or all default is MLA

wskey

Web Services Key

required

Query Indices

Limits

Limits are only available for searching if it is included with a Boolean AND or NOT to another search term from a non-limit index. Limits can not be searched alone or combined with a Boolean OR.

Notes

Usage Limits

Number of queries per day

There is a limit to the number of queries available within a single day set for each wskey. Initially all keys have a limit of 50,000 queries a day as a rolling 24 hour limit. This can be raised by any member with a key that needs to have more access for a particular use of the API. If your key needs to be increased please send a request to the OCLC support staff via our contact form.

Maximum number of records/libraries

For any query the maximum number of records or library locations that can be requested is 100. It is possible to page through the results by sending another query with the next start position and request the next set of records or library locations up to another 100. If not specified, results default to 10 records per request.

Total maximum number of records for a single specific query –

For any specific query, it is possible to page through all the results up to the 10,000th record. After that point, the system will appear to continue to page, but the next result will be a repeat of an earlier record.

Phrase searches searching within subfields

The phrase index assumes that the search string matches the data being searched in its entirety. Further the data searched in the phrase index includes all the data within a single subfield of a Bibliographic MARC record.

So for example the subject phrase includes all the data in the marc subfields such as 650/a,x,y,z. So if there is an example record which includes [650 #a Nuclear Power Plants #x Safety Measures #z California] then the searches that would be entered to retrieve this record would be “nuclear power plants” and “safety measures” and “California”. Each portion of the data is handled as a distinct phrase search. The suggested strategy in searching for records that contain those subheadings is to AND those terms together.

Truncation

For right truncation use an asterisk - * There must be at least three characters before the * for the query to work. There is no left truncation.

To wildcard a single character wildcard use a number sign - #. So a query for wom#n provides results that include both woman and women in the results.

For a 0-9 number of characters as wildcard characters use ?n. So a query for colo?1r provides results of color and colour.

To wildcard characters within (or at the end) a term use the question mark - ?. So a query for colo?r provides results of color, colour, colonizer, and colorimeter

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